


Defiant

by TheRantDragon



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Pre-Team Artemis, family business
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-03
Updated: 2019-02-03
Packaged: 2019-10-21 22:06:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17650763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheRantDragon/pseuds/TheRantDragon
Summary: “And you think you don’t, squirt?” he sneers, a nasty smirk on his mouth. “You get amnesia and conveniently forget you pulled the trigger tonight?”





	Defiant

**Author's Note:**

> So on Ask Greg, Greg actually has said that Artemis never killed anyone as part of her training with Sportsmaster. I'm actually really relieved by that because if you stop and think about how truly fucked up it would be for a small child to do shit like that... My poor girl Arty deserves better than that. But I know it was and will probably remain a popular headcanon/fan theory, so it's still okay. But I did write this before I ever saw that Ask Greg thing.

“I wish they had taken you. I don’t need you.”

The words come out in her young, angry voice. They float up into the night air, full of resentment as they join the few stars visible against the black backdrop of the sky. Her fists are balled up, hanging by her sides and shaking with the weight of her emotions.

He grunts, not taking her seriously. As usual.

“That so, baby girl?” he asks. His face is bathed in alternating red and blue lights that sharpen the contours of his features. Police cars are parked below, down by the first floor of the apartment building where they’d barely managed to get away from in time.

The adrenaline, the fear, the distaste. It’s all still flooding her senses, making bile rise up in her throat.

She swallows. Squares her thin shoulders before her slate eyes flick over to meet his. They’re just as dark, just as cold. Sometimes she hates how much she favors his looks over her mother’s.

But right now none of that matters.

“Yeah,” she ekes out, mouth dry. She licks her lips, watching the chaos of murder unfold several stories below them; they’re safe here. It’s little comfort to her. “It  _is_ so. Mom will be out in three years. She’ll come home and I’ll be there. We don’t need you.  _I_  don’t need you.” Her brows come together in anger, her visage challenging. “ _That’s_  where you belong,” she breathes, pointing with conviction down below to the black and white vehicles.

He watches her for a beat, then throws his head back with laughter. She wishes she could get up the courage to punch his box jaw. Instead she settles for clenching hers so tightly her teeth ache.

“And you think you don’t, squirt?” he sneers, a nasty smirk on his mouth. “You get amnesia and conveniently forget  _you_  pulled the trigger tonight?”

The crossbow feels heavy on her back. Her body trembles, and her stomach churns. She can still see the man in her mind’s eye, the innocent man that had begged for mercy from them before her dad ordered her to silence him forever.

She retches, unbidden. It’s dry, empty as she collapses onto one knee, using her hands to hold herself up. Her fingers curl into the concrete, and she feels disgusted with herself in more ways than one.

“Get up, runt!” he growls, grabbing the scruff of her hoodie and yanking her up hard enough to choke her. “You make me sick, I swear. Everything I teach you just goes in one ear and out the other! Wasted. Jade listened better than you do.”

“ _I’m not Jade_ ,” Artemis snaps, hoarse. Her hand massages her throat. “I’ve never been Jade! I’m not Jade, Jade isn’t even here! I’m  _Artemis_ _!_ ” she yells, her eyes stinging with tears she would never dare to shed. Not in front of Sportsmaster. Not in front of anyone.

“Lower your voice,” Lawrence hisses in a threatening whisper. “Believe me, I know who  _you_  are. You’re a pain in my ass, always have been! You don’t listen, you struggle with the simplest tasks, you can’t handle what I have to teach, Artemis. And that teenage defiance,” the blond man seethes, reaching out to grab her bicep in a grip she knows will leave a horrible bruise. “It’s going to stop. Tonight!”

“Or what?” Artemis dares him before she can reign her tongue in.

Their eyes catch, both narrowing, both daring the other to make a move. Finally, when Artemis’s heart is thudding and she can’t feel her arm anymore from his hold, Lawrence snorts and throws it away from him.

“You know what? I don’t care. You’ll keep doing as I say if you want to keep food in your belly. You ain’t got anywhere else to go, Artemis,” he tells her in a soft, menacing voice. His thick fingers grab her chin and force her to look at him, his hot breath wafting across her face. “So buck up and accept the fact that there’s no where to run. No one else will take you, who’d want to? You’re a con in the making; there’s blood on your hands and you’ve barely hit puberty. The seeds have already been planted, baby girl. You can’t run from who you are.”

She never believed those words. Not really.


End file.
